🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec24.193342.29953@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (J. Furr) writes:
>: 
>: I post this whole mess to sci.space and say "help" because it seems that
>: one side in a.f.u. is arguing as follows: _all_ asteroids occur between
>: the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  Therefore Neptune, Pluto, etc. could not
>: possibly have captured asteroids because asteroids don't go out that far.
>
>Not quite. My definition of asteriod is: any body that orginated in the
>"asteriod belt" (between Mars and Jupiter). I have made no claim as to  
>where they can orbit. Jupiter is large enough to cause significant perturbation
>to their orbits.
>
>However, it is a long way from Jupiter to Neptune. I am waiting for someone
>to post a reference that states that there are asteriods (by my definition)
>that orbit that far out.
>
>Bill

O.K., here's a reference for you.  From "A photometric study of (2060) Chiron
and its coma" by R.M. West published in Astronomy and Astrophysics vol. 241
pg. 635.  R. M. West says, "(Chiron) is the most distant minor planet known
at present; the orbital eccentricity is moderately high (e=0.38) and with a
semi-major axis of 13.7 AU, the peri- and aphelia of (2060) Chiron are near
the mean orbital distances of Saturn and Uranus, respectively."

So, as of July 6, 1991, the answer to your question is "no, there aren't
any asteroids that far out".  That really isn't conclusive as we really don't
have the right technology at present to look for them.  We need a larger 
Infrared telescope, or maybe a Hubble that isn't all bollixed up.  It seems
to me that there are some asteroids from the belt out there, probably about
the same amount that are found amongst the inner planets (which means not
very many), in a great deal more volume.

Bill Jacobs
Astronomer at large